Treat people how you want to be treated. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Don’t let fear stop you from living your dream. You can do it! Everybody is not going to love or like you. It’s not about them. It’s about you. When you lower yourself to people who are hateful and bad you give them power over you. Be bigger than that, be who you are, be proud

Albert Alexander

Banker and College Athlete

My name is Albert Alexander. My journey started July 6, 1949 in Meridian, Mississippi. I was born in a house that had no running water. I didn’t consider myself poor. If you’ve never had it you can’t miss it. My philosophy isn’t about where you start but where you end.

My first job was picking cotton at five years old. The going rate was twenty-five cents a pound. Once a month a vendor came by our home in a truck. He’d lift up the side and would have magic potions, needles, threads, and candy for sell. We ate what we grew. The meat we ate was from something we hunted.

When I was six years old the family moved to Dayton, Ohio. It was cultural shock to move from the rural south into a society that was liberal and open. At the age of ten we moved to Tennessee where they spanked you with a paddle if you were bad.

To have a classroom like yours with different cultures and nationalities wasn’t heard of. In seventh grade I was fortunate to have teachers who challenged us to do better. I learned how rewarding it was to push yourself to learn and to do. Nineteen sixty-four was a historic year in the United States. The schools were desegregated. I was part of the first integrated school to graduate from Knoxville, Tennessee. I wanted to be an athlete. Fortunately I got lucky, or through divine intervention I grew and developed an aptitude for playing basketball. By the time I was a senior I was six-feet-four.

My mother is a hero in my life. She had dreams for me that were bigger than what I had for myself. She said, “You’re going to college.” I went to college on a basketball scholarship. In my senior year at Tennessee State we were the number one division college team in the United States. We went to the Final Four three times and the national championship two times.

Only one player from my team graduated from college and that was me. I graduated in business and finance. After college, I played a short while with the Harlem Magicians which spun off from the Harlem Globetrotters. Later I coached college basketball where I met a man recruiting for U.S. Bank.

In 1975, I moved to Minneapolis to work with them. After that I went to work at Marquette Banks until 2002 when Carl Pohlad sold his banks to Wells Fargo. In June of 2004 I went to work at Excel Bank.

Yesterday my wife and I celebrated our 24th anniversary. My wife has been a Judge for 23 years. She, too, is a hero in my life. She has shown me what courage is all about. How to live by principle and not be swayed by public opinion. We have two daughters who are 16 and 13. The only life they have ever known is the life they live in Edina. Each year we take a trip together to visit our family down south. The hope for my daughters is to be as happy as their mother and I have been in our life. I want them to live the life they want and to help someone less fortunate than they are. Those of us who are blessed have an obligation to share with others.

Treat Other People How You Want To Be Treated Yourself

Treat Other People How You Want To Be Treated YourselfHonoring Albert Alexander

[CHORUS]
Treat other people how you want to be treated yourself
It’s a long way, long way, long way, long way back home

I was born way down south
In Mississippi
Without indoor plumbing
No electricity
For toilet paper used a leaf
Or catalogue
For Christmas a shoebox
Piece of fruit and candy bar

(CHORUS)

At the age of four or five
Had to walk those rows
The bag was long,
I was short
Wishing I would grow
The rate for a pound
Was twenty-five cents
Which I barely made
Picking cotton off the vine
Piece of fruit and candy bar

(CHORUS)

When I walked to school
This boy picked on me
He would steal my lunch box
And I would go hungry

Until my older sister
Gave him a wicked right
Never had that problem again
After she won that fight

(CHORUS)

Teachers pushed me
To study when I was young
At the same time
I could not walk and chew gum
Through divine intervention
Somehow I grew tall
By the time I hit 9th grade
Fell in love with basketball

(CHORUS)

The only job my mom could get
Was to clean, wash, or sew
Still she had ambition
For one of us to go
Off to college
To get a degree
Through a basketball scholarship
That someone was me

(CHORUS)

To get in the NBA
Is like being struck
Twice by a bolt of lightning
It takes more than luck
It’s not where you start
It’s where you end
Get an education
That’s where you should begin

(CHORUS)

Now I’m a banker
I advise and give out loans
Have a wife, two daughters
With love and trust at home
Be proud of who you are
Live a good life
Help those less fortunate
That is my advice

(CHORUS)

Music by LARRY LONG. Words by LARRY LONG with Abby Wallin’s 5th Grade Class of Countryside Elementary School. (Edina, Minnesota)